The stock market is trading slightly lower at midday, with the S&P 500 down 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.6%, while the Russell 2000 dropped 1%.
Morgan Stanley now has an in-line view toward the U.S. auto industry, down from attractive due to increasing U.S. auto inventories and consumers’ weakening affordability.
S&P 500 big stock movers today
Five S&P 500 stocks making big midday moves are:
Vistra (VST) +6.5% Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) +4.2% Constellation Energy (CEG) +3.2% Intel (INTC) +2.3% Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) +2.0%
The worst-performing five S&P 500 stocks with the largest midday drop are:
Global Payments (GPN) -6% General Motors (GM) -5.3% Amgen (AMGN) -4.9% Tyson Foods (TSN) -4.1% Ford Motor (F) -4.1%
Stocks also worth noting include:
Nvidia (NVDA) +1.6%Tesla (TSLA) +0.5%Apple (AAPL) -1%Micron (MU) +1.3%Microsoft (MSFT) +0.6%KB Home (KBH) -5.3%
Ford and GM fall after Morgan Stanley downgrade
General Motors and Ford dropped 5% and 4%, respectively, following downgrades from Morgan Stanley’s analyst Adam Jonas.
Morgan Stanley downgraded General Motors to underweight from equal weight with a price target of $42, down from $47. The analyst also downgraded Ford to equal weight from overweight with a price target of $12, down from $16, according to thefly.com.
Related: Analysts weigh in on Ford, praise Tesla
The firm now has an in-line view toward the U.S. auto industry, down from attractive due to increasing U.S. auto inventories and consumers’ weakening affordability.
Additionally, China’s auto market is struggling, with companies producing nearly 9 million units more than it sells locally, Morgan Stanley adds.
HP Enterprise climbs on Barclays upgrade
Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 4% after Barclays analyst upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight with a price target of $24, up from $20.
Barclays sees early signs of an enterprise recovery and believes HP Enterprise is one of the best ways to invest “since the stock lacks an AI premium,” the analyst said in a research note.
Barclays expects HPE to continue growing its AI server revenue and sees the acquisition of Juniper Networks, announced in January, as a positive driver of earnings growth.
KB Home trades lower after earnings miss
KB Home shares dropped 5% after posting weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings.
The homebuilder earned $2.04 per share, missing the $2.06 expected by analysts. Revenue of $1.75 billion beat the $1.73 billion forecast.
KB Home raised its full-year revenue estimate to a range of $6.85 billion to $6.95 billion, up from the previous $6.7 billion to $6.9 billion.
Barclays raised its stock price target on KB Home to $99 from $78 and affirmed an overweight rating following the earnings, saying the company’s revenue guidance was “well above” Wall Street’s consensus estimate.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
